Researchers have discovered an antibody able to neutralize all known variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as distantly related SARS-like coronaviruses that infect other animals.
As part of a new study on hybrid immunity to the virus, the researchers discovered and isolated a broadly neutralizing plasma antibody, called SC27, from a single patient.
Using technology developed over several years of research into antibody response, the researchers obtained the exact molecular sequence of the antibody, opening the possibility of manufacturing it on a larger scale for future treatments.
“The discovery of SC27, and other antibodies like it in the future, will help us better protect the population against current and future COVID variants,” says Jason Lavinder, a research assistant professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s McKetta chemical engineering department at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the leaders of the new research.
During the more than four years since the discovery of COVID-19, the virus that causes it has rapidly evolved. Each new variant has displayed different characteristics, many of which made them more resistant to vaccines and other treatments.
Protective antibodies bind to a part of the virus called the spike protein that acts as an anchor point for the virus to attach to and infect the cells in the body. By blocking the spike protein, the antibodies prevent this interaction and, therefore, also prevent infection.
SC27 recognized the different characteristics of the spike proteins in the many COVID variants. Fellow UT researchers, who were the first to decode the structure of the original spike protein and paved the way for vaccines and other treatments, verified SC27’s capabilities.
The technology used to isolate the antibody, termed Ig-Seq, gives researchers a closer look at the antibody response to infection and vaccination using a combination of single-cell DNA sequencing and proteomics.
“One goal of this research, and vaccinology in general, is to work toward a universal vaccine that can generate antibodies and create an immune response with broad protection to a rapidly mutating virus,” says Will Voss, a recent PhD graduate in cell and molecular biology in UT’s College of Natural Sciences, who co-led the study.
In addition to the discovery of this antibody, the research found that hybrid immunity—a combination of both infection and vaccination—offers increased antibody-based protection against future exposure compared with infection or vaccination alone.
The work comes amid another summer COVID spike. This trend shows that while the worst of the pandemic may have passed, there’s still a need for innovative solutions to help people avoid and treat the virus.
The research appears in Cell Reports Medicine.
Additional researchers from the University of Texas, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
The researchers have filed a patent application for SC27.
Funding for the research came from the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Source: University of Texas at Austin
